Hospital beds, whether of the medsurg type, stretcher type or birthing type, have typically been provided with castors mounted around the base for movement of the bed. At least one of the castors, and usually two, have at least two operating modes. In most cases, one of the castors will have three operating modes.
More particularly, where the hospital bed castor(s) has (have) two operating modes, these are known as "neutral" and "brake". In the neutral mode, the castors are free to swivel about their respective vertical axes. In the brake mode, the brake castor pad is pressed against the surface of the castor wheel to prevent it from rotating. Further, one of the castors will frequently have a third mode, known as the "steer" mode, in which the castor is locked against swivelling movement and is aligned parallel to the longitudinal dimension of the bed (castor axis of rotation is perpendicular to the hospital bed longitudinal dimension) such that the bed can be pushed straight down a hallway without the bed drifting to one side or the other.
Typically, hospital beds include a rotatable pedal operatively connected to the castor(s) by a linkage or other castor positioning system (e.g., cable drive or the like) for placing the castors in the neutral, brake and steer modes. Normally, the pedal, when in a centermost position, corresponds to the castor being in its neutral mode. The care provider, by stepping on the pedal and rotating it in a first direction from neutral, places the bed into the steer mode for straight-line tracking down the hallway. Alternately, by stepping on the pedal and rotating it in a second direction from neutral, the care provider places the bed into the braked mode, thus making the bed stable for patient ingress and egress. The care provider must, from time to time, check the pedal to ensure that the linkage has in fact engaged the brake when desired. This can be done either by observing the position of the pedal, which can be less than positive visual indication, or, as is more likely, by manually checking the position of the pedal by repeatedly pressing the pedal with a foot. However, this can be time consuming for the care provider. Thus, there has been a significant need for a device that positively visually indicates to the care provider the status of the hospital bed castors as controlled by the pedal and associated linkage.